Unclaimed cremated remains of veterans of 3 wars headed to national cemetery in Marion

Posted on April 16, 2014 at 4:07 a.m.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The unclaimed remains of veterans of the Civil War and both World Wars that were discovered in the vaults of a funeral home group will be inurned next week in a northeastern Indiana cemetery.

Flanner and Buchanan Funeral Centers says the remains are those of Civil War Pvt. Hiram Maine, World War I Pvt. Forest Smith and World War II Cpl. Leo Valdez Jr. All three served in the Army.

Their cremated remains will be inurned at Marion National Cemetery following a ceremony April 26 at Veterans Park in Zionsville, just north of Indianapolis.

The cremated remains were found in Flanner and Buchanan’s unclaimed storage vaults by a group called the Missing in America Project. The group seeks to provide funerals for any veterans with honorable discharges.